This composition was started after I began teaching a lady called, unsurprisingly Emily, who wanted to learn classical guitar. However, she loved playing blues pieces and didn’t really want to play the ordinary classical repertoire at all. One day, when we were in mid-lesson, she said that maybe it would be nice that I wrote a blues for her, as my library of classical blues solos was beginning to diminish! So I begin the piece, shortly after which point, she stopped her lessons, as she had to spend more time with her family. So the piece lay there for a while, until, during the lockdown, I decided to have another look at it. Here is the end result.

It is moderately advanced and therefore not really for the beginner to play, but I hope that its friendly slightly quirky style will appeal to players who like something a little different and fun to play

Chris Dumigan, 2021

Dedicated to Scott Bradley who gave its premiere in Carlisle in November 2001, the three linked movements form an extended piece in a very unusual variation form. The first movement is the ‘rhapsodic ‘element and consists of a tightly organized set of themes that eventually in movement three are reiterated in a ‘dance’ styled movement . The middle interlude is a brief oasis of calm, wherein certain themes recur with all their energy dissipated, before the onslaught of the final dance section.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

Shenandoah has long been one of my very favourite folk/traditional tunes, and so although I considered arranging it in some way for guitar long ago, I hesitated doing so, because I really wanted to do it justice. Part of the problem was the fact the tune had only one refrain and I was mindful of the old saying that you can do nothing to a folk tune except keep repeating it faster and faster. It was only when I considered providing my own opening melody, by way of an introduction to Shenandoah, did the piece really start developing in my mind.

So here you get an introduction of my own prefacing the actual melody of Shenandoah, followed by a return to the introduction, now acting as a link to the final and slightly varied repeat of the folk melody. Throughout I have used open strings clashing with arpeggiated chords, often in high positions, to create a particular effect that I hope players will find evocative and haunting.

Chris Dumigan 2006

After ‘accidentally’ writing what is now No. 2 in Am and finding it uncharacteristically short, yet absolutely complete thematically and developmentally, I resolved then and there to write a complete set in every key. The main criterion for me was that they should be very short, yet complete in structure with developed themes and material, and moreover individually display a wide range of emotional content and styles. Apart from having to backtrack to write No. 1 next, the remaining 22 were in fact written in the published order.

I hope you find them invigorating and stimulating to play whilst the analysts amongst you might hopefully enjoy their structure and tightly controlled thematic development.

Chris Dumigan June 2004

The two- movement structure encompasses a journey from death to life. The first movement is a Lament for those we have loved and lost. It is grief-stricken, and inconsolable until the moment about halfway through the first movement, when our hero has a sudden happy memory of the person or persons lost. The memories get happier and more excited as for a brief moment he forgets his grief and relives the happy time again in his mind, until... suddenly he remembers, and at the happiest moment he is plunged back into the present, and the piece returns to its sombre beginnings.

The second and final movement, in direct contrast to the first is a celebration of the lives to come. After a short linking introduction, which plays around with what is going to be the main theme of the movement proper, one finds oneself in the middle of a huge street party, a celebration to end all celebrations. Imagine for a second an impossible situation wherein the rules of life and death have for a day been suspended and turned inside out. Everybody in the party has been told that they are going to meet their descendants, all the family members due to be born centuries into the future. The whole mood is one of excitement and joy as the party goers await their future family. Then... from the far distance... a procession can be heard and as it gets closer and closer they realise that it is the descendants making their grand entrance. As the procession meets up with the party revellers, everything ends in happiness and optimism.

Chris Dumigan, July 2008

I wrote these free adaptations of three folk songs, after becoming captivated by a BBC Radio 3 broadcast on the works of Percy Grainger, and particularly his association with, and collection of, folk songs around the turn of the century with the aid of wax cylinder recording equipment. Having loved folk songs for as much as thirty years, I was completely unprepared for the recording made by Grainger in 1908 of Joseph Taylor, a 70 year old Lincolnshire peasant folk singer, singing only two verses he remembered of Brigg Fair. I had no idea how the folk singers had sounded before the broadcast and the shock wave it sent through me, immediately sent me into a buzz of compositional activity.

Brigg Fair was therefore composed first on 9/3/97 and begins and ends with an unharmonised rendition of the melody - the same length and with the same mannerisms that Joseph had used. In between, the tune, or the harmonic structure of it, is always there in the form of a fluid variation which gathers momentum throughout. I then sandwiched it with two more pieces Grainger collected in the field.

Lisbon, composed last on 16/3/97 made me think of a processional which begins the piece and records into the distance at the end.

Green Bushes composed on 14/3/97, sounded very dance-like to me and so I have attempted to bring out those characteristics in it.

The set can and should be played without a pause, as the endings of the first two movements link directly with the beginning of the next.

Throughout, I have produced no ultra modern harmonies, but rather tried to remain true to the basic folk nature of the pieces. They are my tribute to Grainger and his pioneering work, but are in no way his harmonisations - in fact, for from it.

The set is respectfully dedicated to Paul Gregory, who gave the first performance at the Westgate Chapel in Lewes on 6/5/97.

Chris Dumigan, December 1997

"I enjoyed this tribute to him (Grainger). The tunes are well defined and there are some expressive moments as well as 'fireworks' in the variations on Green Bushes."
Classical Guitar July 1997, reporting on the first performance.

This new engraving of the work is presenting Brigg Fair on only two pages, to avoid a page turn in the piece. The slow character of the piece, therefore, may not be apparent at first glance, due to the 'filled' pages.
Norbert Dams, Editor January 2008

This piece is named after my eldest daughter and was written in its original solo form in February 1995 when she was not quite four years old. Its happy uncomplicated structure and melody seemed an ideal piece to name after her.

Five years later I decided to re-write it for guitar duet rather than simply adding a second part to the existing solo version.

Shuko Shibata gave the first professional performance of the solo version at Flixton House, Manchester on 30th April 1998, whilst Paul Gregory and Alison Parratt gave the first professional performance of the duet version in the Westgate Chapel, Brighton in 2001.

Chris Dumigan, 2004

This is a single movement work, the inspiration for which was to create a piece emotionally charged yet lonely and thought provoking at the same time. Written in June 2007, it was premiered and subsequently championed by Valerie Hartzell in November 2015, and it still remains in her repertoire to this day.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

Subtitled 'Three Fairy Tales', these three short pieces have a ‘fantastic’ or childlike element to their conception and include some slightly unusual but friendly harmonies, and have never been performed.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

Written at the behest of the late German musician Norbert Dams, and subsequently fingered and published by his firm Daminus (but unfortunately not played by him), it occupies almost the same ideas as A Moment Alone. Like the soliloquy in a play, this quite extended piece is a musical soliloquy, wherein the performer goes through many ideas, and emotions, as if speaking to an audience and by doing so, is talking through his thoughts and problems to them. Likewise this piece has many sudden emotive outbursts, wherein the main theme goes through many changes before eventually returning to the opening idea, towards its close.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

This Sonata was written in April 1974 and is in 3 movements, but was originally conceived in four, the omitted movement becoming my Intermezzo, published separately. As a work of my youth it occurred at a time when my musical influences were very wide ranging and so if one looks hard enough, one can see that the piece doffs its cap in all number of musical directions.

It begins with a very dance — like Allegretto first movement, very much in an English style. The middle movement is really two movements in one. Its first section is slow and expressive with a sudden Scherzo-like Presto in the middle section, but on returning to the opening idea, the theme has moved from major to minor and ends on a tragic note. The final movement is a boisterous Rondo which dances to a triumphant conclusion.

Chris Dumigan May 2016

This was written after a conversation with Paul Gregory, where we were discussing the fact that Ravel died before fulfilling his promise to Segovia to write a guitar piece. Paul then said maybe I should try and write something in his style. A few months later the Sonatina was completed. Its three movements are full of the Ravellian sound, and indeed the middle movement, marked in the style of a minuet, was seen by Angelo Gilardino who complemented me on absolutely capturing a convincing Ravel sound in it. It was he who suggested a surrounding pair of movements, and it was his company Berben of Italy who then published the piece. It was premiered by Paul Gregory at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in May 2004.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

This six-movement suite started out life as a suite for 10-course Renaissance lute, completed in September 1985 and originally requested by a friend who wanted some modern lute music for a project he was about to start. The project subsequently never came to life, but by then the piece had been written. And so it lay fallow for a few years until in September 1994 I realized that if one tuned the guitar string 3 to F# and raised a very few bass notes up an octave, that the entire piece was playable on the guitar with little difference.

The style is a deliberate mixture of Renaissance and modern folk harmonies, as I do find a correlation between the two and each of the six movements has a florid title dedicated to each of the members of my immediate family, in the manner of the lute music of old.

Chris Dumigan May 2016

The original version of the piece is also available and is presented in manuscript Renaissance tablature.

This was my first set of pieces for the classical guitar, which were completed on 15th December 1973. At the time my musical influences were many and varied but included folk music and singer-songwriter artistes such as David Crosby, James Taylor, Paul Simon and Elton John, but also latin-american composers for the guitar such as Villa Lobos, Ponce, Lauro and many others too numerous to mention. So what came out from this heady mix was a very popular style of guitar music with feet in both camps.

Over the years I have added and subtracted various minor bits, usually involving the odd rhythm change here and there, but here it is presented as it was originally written all those years ago. Any good players will probably change the odd detail here and there anyway, so I leave that entirely up to you to do as you see fit.

A number of performances have taken place in The Manchester area from The 1970s onwards, and The official London premiere was given by Galina Vale in January 1999.

Chris Dumigan February 2007

This is a set of three lullabies, each quite different from the other. These gentle works are only of moderate difficulty and are melodic and soothing whilst retaining their own quite individual character.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

These three pieces were originally written as a private commission, and so have never been publicly performed .The folk element is a different country for each of the pieces. Titles are ‘Here the Tidfes Flow’, ‘Tristeza India’, and ‘Vive La Rose’. It’s score is 8 pages and has a duration of 10 minutes.

Chris Dumigan, 2018

Intermezzo for solo guitar
This little single movement piece was written in April 1974 and began life as one of the middle two movements in my Sonata for solo guitar (published separately), until I realised that stylistically it did not quite fit in with that work. Therefore I decided that the movement was too good to lose completely and hope the players amongst you will enjoy having a go at!

A Fireside Scene
This little single movement was written in March 1974 and started out life as my trying to write a piece of programme music. So I imagined a grandfather in front of a warm fire preparing to read an exciting and magical tale to his grandson (or granddaughter), which is the opening 20 bars which acts as a scene-setting type of idea. Then... we’re off! and he begins his magical tale with his excited grandchild listening with wide eyes to his fantastic story. This is the Allegretto section beginning at bar 21 and the main body of the piece. One can hear little remnants of Russian/Arabian music in the manner of Scheherazade in some of the harmonies which might give the listener/player a little clue as to what the story might be about! The slow introduction then returns and the whole story obviously finishes off in a mysterious stillness with a little ‘ping’ on a high harmonic.

Chris Dumigan May 2016

This piece started out as just my version of 'She Moved Through the Fair', without the variations tag, as I had known the melody for several years and yet had not actually committed an arrangement to paper. I arrived to the coda of what is now bar 23, before I realised that my next idea was moving away from the actual melody. It was the old problem with a folk tune that you can't do anything to it other than go faster and louder rearing its head again. It was at that moment that I went back to the title, added the words 'Variations on...' before continuing.

Very little fingering is given here as I feel that there are few, if any, places where my musical intentions could be misconstrued. I have included various slurs along the way but realise that players may want to put others in if they want more flexibility and fluidity of sound.

Chris Dumigan, February 2007